Over the three-quarters of century have passed since the
last vestige of the cable lines of the former Sutter Street Railway, San Francisco's
second cable car company, ceased operation. The November 17, 1929
abandonment by the Market Street Railway (of 1921) of the Pacific Avenue
cable not only ended the last vestige of the once important Sutter
Street Company, but it also ended in San Francisco the cable train (an
open grip car coupled to a closed trailer).

From the start of cable car service on January 27, 1877
the Sutter Street Railroad and its successor companies typically operated
cable car trains consisting of a grip car (dummy) and trailer. This view
shows what the operation looked like in 1905, the year before the Great
Earthquake and Fire ended all of the former Sutter company's cable lines,
except the short Pacific Avenue line.

The Sutter Street Railway was organized in 1863 as the Front Street,
Mission & Ocean Railroad (FSM&ORR) by a group of property owners in the Western Addition
including Henry H. Haight, later Governor of California (after whom Haight Street is
named). The Sutter Street Company was one of the more interesting operations in the
history of San Francisco transport. It was the first railway to follow
Andrew S. Hallidie's concept of the cable car. But
importantly, the Sutter Street Railroad's cable lines were constructed to their own
designs, not those of Hallidie. Utilizing at various times omnibuses, horsecars, steam
dummies, and cable cars, the Sutter Street Railway's operations set the stage for the
successful streetcar lines that followed most its routes after the 1906 earthquake

First - There Were Unprofitable Horsecar Lines

Formally incorporated on February 26, 1865, the FSM&ORR was San Francisco's fifth
street railway. The company was organized as a result of agitation for horsecar service
by Western Addition property owners located north of Geary Street. These property owners
felt that the nearest horsecar service (the Central Railroad) was too distant to ensure
the development of their properties.

The new company wisely awarded Henry Casebolt the
contracts for track construction and car building. Casebolt had extensive experience in
both fields. Track construction began during September, 1865 on Sutter Street from
Sansome westward towards Polk Street. The initial estimated cost was between $ 80,000
and $ 90,000 for trackage, cars, carhouse and stables.

By March, 1866 the company's tracks stretched from Sansome and Sutter to Polk Street,
where they turned north running to Broadway. At this location the company built its car
barn and stables. The impact of this construction was both positive and swift - property
values began to soar in anticipation of the new railroad.

Six car-kits shipped 'round the horn, arrived at this time. These horsecars were soon
erected by Casebolt. Originally, the seats were deeply cushioned red-velvet plush. The
cars' bore the company initials and a listing of the streets served. An innovation
invented by Casebolt was the spring latch, which kept the car windows when opened from
rattling excessively.

The company proudly announced to the citizens of San Francisco its opening:

"Your company is respectfully solicited on the occasion of the opening of the Front
St, Mission, and Ocean Railroad, this day May 1, 1866, at 3:00 P.M. The cars will start
from the intersection of Sutter & Sansome St."

San Francisco's commercial center during the 1860s centered at Portsmouth Square
(Kearny and Clay). Ferry boat service of the San Francisco and Oakland Railroad Company
began operation on September 2, 1863 from the Davis Street landing, located today at
approximately the intersection of Davis and Vallejo Streets. The Davis Street slips were
soon joined by other Ferry routes, such as San Francisco and Alameda Railroad's service.
In short, a significant portion of San Francisco's economic base was north of Sutter
Street.

Unfortunately, the line was not profitable. The contractor Henry Casebolt was forced
to accept shares of common stock as payment for building and equipping the line. These
equity shares gave Casebolt effective control of the railway, almost from its opening.
Casebolt became superintendent of the railway, a position which he would hold for
fourteen years.

Even before the line opened, management recognized that they needed to serve these
commercial zones to enhance the viability of their investment. Accordingly, the
appropriate franchises were obtained and in addition, trackage rights were granted
from the North Beach & Mission to use their tracks on Battery Street. On July 29,
1866 work began on the line's northward extension from Sutter and Sansome. Completed
December 1 that year, the extension ran from Sansome east on Market Street one block
(using trackage rights), north on Battery Street, and east on Broadway to the Davis
Street landing.

This extension was the first in a series of extensions. Casebolt was finding out
that, no matter how much he tried, the company line couldn't break-even. Accordingly,
he obtained new franchises (to serve new service areas) in an effort to increase revenues
by increasing ridership. However, the fundamental economic problem Casebolt faced was that
horsecar services were expensive to operate, especially in outlying districts. By the
time its horsecar mileage was complete in 1871 the FSM&ORR had the most far flung system
in San Francisco. Horses, unlike human labor, could only be worked approximately four
hours. Horses had to be fed, groomed and stabled. As of June 1, 1867 the company had 12
horsecars and 90 horses! Because of the extensive mileage, the small cars, the slow
speeds, because it was a horsecar railway, all this was costly; the line was marginal,
at best. Casebolt would ultimately solve this dilemma by substituting the mechanical
power of the cable car and steam dummy for animal power.

On April 7, 1867 the company, using the unused franchise of the Fort Point Railroad,
began an omnibus service (a shared stagecoach on a predetermined route) from the western
end of its horsecar line at Polk and Broadway to Harbor View (site of the Palace of Fine
Arts) and the Presidio military base. This early service ran into multiple problems
due to the weather's impact on the ungraded city streets that often created impassable
conditions. Service was then rerouted or suspended totally. The fare was 30 cents,
however by December 1 in an effort to stimulate patronage the fare was halved to 15 cents.

The summer of 1868 found construction underway on two horsecar extensions - Pacific
Avenue and the Presidio Branch. The Pacific Avenue branch, which started at Polk and
Pacific, was proposed to serve the then largely undeveloped northern Richmond District.
It never did. The franchise awarded to the FSM&ORR stated that the company was to extend
the branch westward on Pacific Avenue to "the ocean when Pacific Ave is extended to said
location." The first phase was to be to Pierce Street; a point reached by the construction
crews in late September. This is as far west as the Pacific Avenue horsecar ever ran.
In fact the line was eventually cut back two-blocks to Fillmore Street. A car shortage
delayed the line opening until December 10.

Converting the railway's omnibus route that served Harbor View to the Presidio Branch
horsecar rail line was Casebolt's solution to the continuing problem of that line's
frequent weather related service interruptions. The Presidio branch was completed by
the beginning of December. The route ran from Broadway and Polk to Harbor View by going
north on Polk to Filbert, then following the contour of the land on it ran westward on a
private-right-of-way to a location on Union Street west of Van Ness Avenue, at which point
it used again city streets - namely, Union, Steiner, Greenwich, Baker and lastly
Jefferson Street to enter the Presidio grounds. On December 19, the first car was
tested. January 6, 1869 was date when revenue service started, however "Old Man Winter"
stepped in again and delayed any reliable service until March 11. The problem was that
the most of the streets traversed were not paved

Also during May 1870, the company in 17 days constructed a new line from Sutter south
along Larkin and Ninth Streets to Mission, where a connection was made to and trackage
rights obtained from the City Railroad that enabled Sutter cars to continue to Woodward's
Gardens - an important recreational destination for San Franciscans of the period.

Shortly afterward, during September, 1870, the company further
expanded into the Western Addition (the area west of Van Ness Avenue)
with the opening of its Lone Mountain, or Cemetery line. The cemeteries
during this period were an important recreational destination. After
paying respects at a grave site, it would be time for a picnic. This was
especially true until Golden Gate Park was well developed. This new
branch ran from Bush and Polk, where passengers transferred from the
company's main Sutter Street line, via Bush, Fillmore, California, and
Central Avenue (Presidio) to Point Lobos Road (Geary Blvd) - the
location of many of the city's cemeteries until the first half of the
next century. Those who wanted to continue to an ocean beach resort
would board an omnibus for the remainder of their trip along the Point
Lobos Toll Road. By May 15, 1870 work on this new line was completed to
California and Fillmore Streets. The line opened to this point on May
17. The full line to the cemeteries opened on September 17.

All this expansion meant that the company's original Polk and
Broadway carhouse and stables were inadequate to meet the company's
needs. A new carhouse and stables were, therefore, constructed at the
intersection of Bush and Larkin - a location close to two of the
company's branches and its main Sutter Street line. Construction began
May of 1870 and involved moving some structures from the original site,
in addition to new buildings. Work was completed on September 14 of that
year, in time for serving the opening of the Lone Mountain Line.

Sutter Street was the company's main operational street. Both the
press and general public, accordingly, continually and ubiquitously
referred to the company as the "Sutter Street Railroad" instead of its
formal corporate title - Front Street, Mission & Ocean Railroad. The
company did not run on Front Street nor did it reach the ocean, and its
Mission Street operation was as a result of trackage rights obtained
from the City Railroad, although it did have never-used franchise rights
in the Mission. Therefore, management by 1872 changed the road's
official title to "Sutter Street Railroad" (SSRR).

The hope was that with these extensions, which made the Sutter Street
Company one the city's largest horsecar operations, the company would
earn a profit. This was not the case. During the years following the
1869 opening of the transcontinental railroad, San Francisco and
Northern California experienced a depression that only worsened by the
middle of the 1870s. Sutter Street's major losses kept mounting.
Something had to be done.

The Famous Balloon Horsecar

Casebolt's solution was to reduce operating costs; not by reduction
of schedules but by redesigning the horse car. His car building firm -
Casebolt & Kerr - had built more 40 "bobtail" horsecars for the City
Railroad. The City Railroad's single-ended bobtail cars ran driven by
one man using a single horse. Sutter Street Railroad's double-ended cars
used two men - a driver and conductor - and two horses. The bobtail
provided considerable operating savings, notably on lightly trafficked
schedules. The City Railroad was built for single-ended cars with
turntables at each of its terminals. Adding turntables to the Sutter
lines Casebolt regarded as prohibitively expensive. His solution was
ingenious. Instead of turntables in the street Casebolt incorporated the
turntable directly onto the car, creating one of the oddest types of
horsecars anywhere: the Balloon Car.

The ingenuity of Henry Casebolt is clearly illustrated in this February 1875
company portrait of one of his famous, but short lived, Balloon Cars -- No.1 -- at the company’s
Bush and Larkin car house and stable. To save on operating cost by both reducing crew and horse
power to one of each, and avoid construction of costly street turntables Casebolt incorporated
the turntable directly onto the car. Nevertheless, when one considers the cost of stabling
horses, labor costs and fixed charges it is apparent Casebolt’s Balloon cars had too low a
capacity to solve the company’s financial difficulties. Randolph Brant Collection. Click
on the image to see a larger version.

Casebolt broadly patterned his "balloon cars" after the standard
bobtail horsecar, with a characteristic single rear door and step. At
this point however the similarity ended; in place of the conventional
bobtail horsecar rectangular body Casebolt substituted an almost totally
round body. On top of the body was an overhanging oval roof. The design
readily lent itself to the term "balloon car."

The "balloon cars" featured such unusual amenities as floor carpeting
and plush upholstered seats. They were small in passenger capacity,
requiring but a single horse on flat sections of its routes. On the
hilly sections two horses, in tandem, were needed. The Sutter Street
Railroad roster, of the period, shows the company had "27 hill
horses."

The car's body was mounted on a central pivot that raised it above
the truck and undercarriage. This allowed the driver to reverse the
car's direction from his seat! The driver by using a latching device
would free the upper portion of the car, swivel the car body around 180
degrees on the pivot as he guided the team in a semi circle, thereby
reversing direction without turning the truck. He would then secure the
car body by latching. The design saved the driver from the task of
unhitching the team and walking around the car.

According to a local wag the "balloon cars" were "mostly built from
gas pipe and tin." There may be some truth in his observation, after
awhile the pivots began to wear causing the cars to rock from side to
side as the traveled down the street. This rough and often unacceptable
ride produced frequent derailments, often the disgruntled passengers
were drafted into placing the car back on the rails.

Balloon cars served the company for three years from 1874 to 1877.
They were used on a line which utilized, from the north, the Harbor
View/Presidio extension, the central portion being a portion of the
mainline on Polk and Sutter Streets, and the southern portion along
Larkin and Ninth Streets along the Mission Branch to Woodward's
Gardens.

Around 1875, a major change was taking place: the traffic patterns of
San Francisco. Ferry boat service was being shifted from the Davis
Street wharfs to the foot of Market Street, the present day location of
the Ferry Building. As a result the Omnibus Railroad obtained a
connecting franchise to operate on Market Street from Sansome and Market
to the new Ferry terminal. The Sutter Street Railroad owned the first
block of Market Street trackage that the Omnibus needed - namely, the
outside tracks on Market Street between Sansome and Battery.
Accordingly, the Sutter Street and Omnibus Railroads entered into an
agreement that permitted both roads to reach the Ferry. Concurrent with
the Market Street direct operation to the new Ferry Terminal the now
redundant trackage on Battery and Broadway was abandoned. This was the
first abandonment of service on the Sutter Street Railroad. In 1913,
horsecar service in San Francisco would conclude with end of the Sutter
and Sansome via Market Street horsecar to the Ferry.

A Financial Solution - Cable Cars and Steam Dummies

Balloon cars did not solve the company's financial difficulties.
Casebolt was soon convinced that a mechanical solution - cable or steam
operation - was the only way to make the line pay. After much study and
experience, Casebolt opted for a dual approach - cable cars on the
mainline and downtown branches, and steam on the Presidio Branch, given
the distances and low population of that line. These decisions were
arrived at over a period of time, as technology advanced.

Why a steam dummy?? During Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition of
1876 the Baldwin locomotive Works brought out its "Steam Dummy,"
intended for use on the edge of cities where neither the horsecar nor
cable car were economically feasible. Casebolt was impressed by what he
saw.

Technology was catching up for urban transportation, as well. August
2, 1873 was an important day in San Francisco's history. On that date
Andrew Smith Hallidie successfully tested the world's first cable car -
the Clay Street Hill Railroad. Subsequent revenue service proved that
the cable car was not only mechanically viable, but financially highly
profitable.

Unlike the Clay Street Hill Railroad, the Sutter Street line ran over
fairly level ground, its highest point being only 170 feet above the
elevation of the lower terminus, and its steepest grade only 4%.
However, it was Clay Street's rate of return on investment that
attracted Casebolt.

When Casebolt first expressed interest in converting one of his
horsecar lines to cable in 1876, the Clay Street Hill Railroad's owners
demanded a $50,000 license fee for their patents and a royalty on every grip used by
the new line. Outraged, Casebolt determined to design his own system,
avoiding Hallidie's patents. Along with Asa
Hovey, an employee of Casebolt's car building firm, Casebolt
designed the new cable line's physical plant. A court case followed. In
1880 the United States Circuit Court decided the case, ruling that
Hallidie's prior use was only experimental use, and that a patent for a
device not yet perfected could not be infringed. The court ordered that
the Sutter Street Railroad pay $1 in damages to Hallidie. This case was
the first in series of patent suits that characterized the cable
traction industry throughout its history.

Conversion of the property from horsecar to cable operations took
place in 1876, and on January 27, 1877 the line initiated revenue
service, running from the intersection of Market and Sutter Streets west
on Sutter to Larkin. The change from horse to cable proved immediately
successful. Ridership increased by 962,000 during the first year of
operation.

Grip car No.46 is at Sutter & Powell Streets, 1890s.
Where No.46's trailer is is a mystery. However, No. 46 ran until 1929
(1907-1929 on Pacific Avenue). Today No. 46 can be seen on display with
trailer No. 54 on display at the Cable Car Museum.

From the start of cable car service on January 27, 1877 the Sutter
Street Railroad and its successor companies operated cable car trains
consisting of a grip car (dummy) and trailer. At Market Street the
trailer or "car," as it was often referred to in the contemporary
period, was uncoupled from the grip car and hitched to a horse to
continue the journey to the Ferry Building. Former horsecars often were
used as trailers.

The Presidio Branch got its attention too, when on September 22,
1877, a new steam dummy service began to Harbor View and the Presidio
connecting with Sutter Street Railroad's crosstown horsecar operation at
Polk and Broadway. This was San Francisco's first and last true steam
dummy operation, lasting a total of twenty-nine years. During that
summer Casebolt had purchased two Baldwin steam dummies - the No. 1
named Harbor View and No. 2 the Henry Casebolt.

The success of their first line soon led the company to extend its
cable operations. In late 1878 the firm opened the first crosstown cable
line in the city, running from the powerhouse at Larkin and Bush south
on Larkin to Hayes and Market Streets.

Upon completion of this line the railway extended the main line west
on Sutter to Central (now Presidio) Avenue in two phases, as replacement
for its Lone Mountain horsecar branch. On June 14, 1879, the Sutter
Street cable line was extended west from Larkin Street to Buchanan. A
temporary steam dummy shuttle ran from Buchanan to Central (Presidio)
Avenue. The steam dummy was diverted from the company's short-lived
Harbor View steam motor line. Cable car service reached Central Avenue
in October 1879. This extension was the second cable line into the
sparsely developed section of the city known as the Western Addition
(Cal Cable was the first with service to Fillmore Street as of April 10,
1878), and brought the total amount of track operated by the firm to 2.5
miles on Sutter and .7 miles on Larkin. One month later in November, the
Sutter Street Railroad received new 50-year charter under which its name
was changed to the Sutter Street Railway.

It wasn't clear, at the time but the Sutter Street Railroad's
principle owner, Henry Casebolt had restructured the railway that it was
now a sellable commodity. With the abandonment of poorly routed lines,
the mechanizations of most of its lines then in service, and the
extension of the franchises another fifty years, Casebolt was now ready
to make a move he had long desired: the selling of the Sutter Street
Railroad. Thus, on January 30, 1880, the Sutter Street Railway was
formally taken over by new owners, Robert F. Morrow (a local real estate
broker) & Associates from Henry Casebolt.

Robert Morrow wasted no time in upgrading the system. By 1882, the
plans were ready. The following year, 1883, Morrow abandoned the
powerhouse built at Sutter and Presidio in 1879 to drive the western end
of the Sutter Street cable in favor of consolidating the firm's
operations into a single powerhouse at Sutter and Polk. He further
extended the Larkin line south, across Market and down 9th Street, to
Mission.

Dwarfed by the by the company’s imposing three-story brick main car house, powerhouse and
headquarters building an inbound Sutter Street train passes the heart of the Sutter Street Railway at Sutter
and Polk Streets, 1905. Opened in 1883 this location was selected because it was central to the company’s two
cable lines -- Sutter Street and the crosstown Polk, Larkin and Ninth Street line. Central locations for cable
car power houses were critical to minimizing strain on the cable. This power house powered four cables -- Sutter
east, Sutter west, Polk north and Larkin south. Randolph Brant Collection. Click on the image to see a
larger version.

As a result, the original cable powerhouse was abandoned. After all,
it was a converted stable, of all-wooden construction, the first of only
two instances in San Francisco where a cable power plant was installed
in an existing building (United Railroads' 1907 installation at Castro
Street being the other). Also in 1883, during the first rebuilding of
the conduits, the Larkin line was rerouted off Larkin at Post, then
north again on Polk to Sutter. This resulted in San Francisco's first
Pull-Curves, which had only recently been developed in
Dunedin, New Zealand.

Also during the early 1880s, Robert Morrow also acquired a 40% stake
in the Sutter line's cable rival the Geary
Street, Park & Ocean Railroad; remaining equity belonged to Southern
Pacific's Market Street Cable Railway.
This company, which began its cable operation in February 1880. On
August 7, 1892 a rebuilt Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railroad opened
being converted from 5'-0" gauge to 4'-8½" (standard gauge) to allow
Geary cars to operate on the Market Street Cable Railway's Market Street
trackage to the Ferry. This plan was never carried out, largely because
Morrow's company stake was large enough to block Southern Pacific's
plan. Morrow's action was designed to protect his Sutter Street
investment.

After the sale by Casebolt to Morrow, the Sutter Street Company was
ready to rid itself of its money-losing Harbor View steam route. This
line connected with the Polk Street horsecar, an integral part of Sutter
Street Railway system, at Broadway and ran to Harbor View (the northern
bay section of today's Marina). This was part of a larger plan of Morrow
to eliminate its excess trackage and facilities. Ownership of the steam
line passed to the Presidio & Ferries in
1881. The Presidio & Ferries soon shortened the steam line to run from
Union and Steiner Streets to Harbor View. That company's Union Street
cable line provided the connections to and from for the rest of the
City.

In 1887, the firm extended its Larkin Street line farther south on
Ninth Street to Brannan. The following year construction crews pushed
the cross-town line north on Polk from the powerhouse to Pacific Avenue,
and then west out Pacific to Divisadero. The firm's financial success
during is shown by newspaper reports of earnings of between $1500 and
$1700 per day in 1888. This addition gave the company a total of
approximately six miles of cable track, plus a mile of horsecar track
that connected the Sutter and Market terminus with the Ferry Building
and a few blocks on Polk between Union and Pacific.

Compared to the Market Street Railway (Ex-Market Street Cable Railway) 34-foot double-truck
combination standard gauge cable car with its carrying capacity of 130 (foreground) the five-foot gauge Sutter
Street Railway train led by dummy No. 24 crossing Market Street from Larkin to Ninth Street appears both quaint
and obsolete. It was. The Sutter trains maximum load was about half of the bigger car. Both had the same crew
size -- a gripman and conductor. The Sutter company being San Francisco’s second company adopted the "design of
the time." Subsequent conversion would mean incurring the cost of expensive turntables, besides the capital
costs of the new equipment. Management rejected these changes. Charles A. Smallwood Collection.
Click on the image to see a larger version.

It is interesting to note that the Sutter Street system initially
opened with an experimental installation which was replaced in 1883 with
more permanent structures, both above and below ground. The entire
system was again rebuilt in 1890-91. Daily operation of the lines
continued throughout the work. This resulted in the most massive cable
conduits ever built in San Francisco. The line was now up to the most
modern cable standards of the day.

Events during the 1890s, independent of the Sutter Street Railway,
were occurring which would profoundly affect the course of its
development. On July 2, 1894 the City granted to Adolph Sutro a street
railroad franchise for a line between Central Avenue (now Presidio
Avenue) and the Cliff House area, with a branch line to Golden Gate
Park. A prime purpose of Sutro was to break the beach trade monopoly
power of the Southern Pacific's Market Street Railway, whereby that
company charged an extra 5¢ fare to transfer from its cable car lines to
its steam lines. At first Sutro insisted the new line would be a cable
line, he later opted for streetcar service that began on February 1,
1896.

Morrow recognized the new Sutro Railroad provided an excellent
business opportunity for his Sutter Street line, which did not have a
direct connection for the lucrative beach and park traffic. A free
transfer agreement was signed between the two companies, which made it
possible to travel from the Bay Front, to the Ocean or Golden Gate Park
for five cents.

The economic impact on the Sutter Street Railway of this agreement
was both swift and positive. By July the company reported receipts had
increased an average of three hundred dollars per day, the equivalent of
6,000 extra boardings. On Sunday July 16 the Sutter Street cable carried
40,000 people, without an injury. Much of this new traffic was obtained
at the expense of the Market Street Railway.

Arrangements with the Sutro Railroad were turning out well, but for
Adolph Sutro, the strain of the mayoralty was too much and by March of
1898 his affairs were under the conservator-ship of his daughter, Dr.
Emma Sutro Merritt. She became the president of the Sutro Railroad in
April of 1898, and sold the railway at auction to Robert Morrow in
October of 1899. Its operations were integrated into those of the Sutter
Street Railway. Like Casebolt before him, Morrow had made the railway a
prime property for a sale.

On May 12, 1901, the independent San Francisco & San Mateo Electric
Railway (SF&SM) was purchased by the "Baltimore Syndicate" for
$1,650,000. The purchase was financed by Brown Bros & Company, 59 Wall
Street, New York City. It was extensively rumored, at the time, that the
Syndicate was looking for other railway properties in the Bay Area. The
new owners of the SF& SM quietly began negotiations with the Henry
Huntington to purchase the Market Street Railway, San Francisco's
largest public transit entity.

The Sutter Street Railway was purchased by the "Baltimore Syndicate"
during July, 1901, nine months before the creation of the URR and was
operated during this period as part of the SF&SM. The Sutter Street
Railway then became part of the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR)
in 1902, with an electric streetcar company and the Market Street
Railway. The URR operated the former Sutter Street cable lines until April 18, 1906 when the earthquake and fire
destroyed the powerhouse, most of the rolling stock, and portions of the
conduit. United Railroads, intent upon cutting operating expenses to the
bone to pay dividends on the firm's watered stock, converted all of the
old Sutter Street Railway lines, except the Pacific Avenue route, to the
more cost effective electric streetcars following the earthquake and
fire. (The Polk, Larkin, Ninth Street line was in the process of being
converted to streetcars at the time of the 1906 disaster.) By the time
of its purchase by SF&SM in 1901 the company's lines were ready for
conversion, though in good shape given the age of the physical
plant.

The URR's Pacific Avenue line operated out of a small powerhouse near
the northwest corner of Polk and Pacific. Only the final block to
Divisadero had a grade beyond the capabilities of the period's electric
streetcars. The wealthy Pacific Avenue residents had successfully
objected to having "unsightly" overhead trolley wires. This last vestige
of the Sutter Street Railroad was ended by the Market Street Railway,
who got positive public relations out of the abandonment, on
November 29, 1929.

The last vestige of the Sutter Street Railroad's cable car
service was ended by the Market Street Railway, who got positive public
relations out of the abandonment as shown by this photo, November 29,
1929.

On August 27, 1929 the 48-year-old
Pacific Avenue cable line, affectionately known to the district served
as "The Kiddies Delight," was officially legislated out of business when
the Board of Supervisors votes to abandon the line. The fifty year
franchise was about to expire (other expiring franchises were extended
ultimately in 1930 by the voters). The Market Street Railway (of 1921)
reported loses about $28,000 on the line annually.

The Pacific Avenue remnant, still operating as it had in the 1890s
with cable trains (although the URR had briefly tried to implement a
one-man cable car to reduce losses) at the time of its November 29, 1929
abandonment was by then an obsolete anachronism. It is ironic that the
line that Casebolt built and Morrow nurtured as cutting edge technology,
in the name of "progress" would become sentimentalized at the end. It
was this sentimentality, however, that gave birth two decades later, to
the movement that eventually saved most of San Francisco's remaining
cable cars. (Refer to "The Cable
Car and the Mayor") for more information.

The Technology of the Sutter Street Cable

The conduits used by the Sutter Street Railroad marked no real
advance in cable traction technology from those used by Hallidie for the
1873 Clay Street Hill Railroad. Casebolt and Hovey designed the original
installation along the lines adopted by Hallidie on the Clay Street Hill
Railroad, using large quantities of wood to keep construction costs at a
minimum. In 1879 the firm adopted a yoke of bent railroad iron, modeled
after that designed by Henry Root in 1877 for the California Street
Cable Railroad. During the 1890-91 reconstruction of the line, a new
conduit was installed consisting of square wrought iron yokes embedded
in Portland cement. This supported 46-pound rail set at a 5-foot
gauge.

During the relocation of the powerhouse and extension of the Larkin
Street line across Market in 1883, the firm built the first pull curves
used in San Francisco. George Duncan
invented the pull curve in 1881 for the Dunedin & Roslyn Tramway Co. of Dunedin, New
Zealand. Before this date existing technology restricted the operation
of cable railroads to straight lines, except in special cases like that
of San Francisco's Presidio & Ferries Railway, which in 1880 built a
drift curve that allowed cars to release the cable and simply coast
through the turn. This type of construction proved possible only where
both streets involved descended as they approached the intersection.
Pull curves did not require specific street conditions, but could be
built at any intersection. This advantage over the drift curve resulted
in their use for most of the turns built by cable railroads, despite
their technical complexity, complicated construction and high cost. The
Sutter Street Railroad built six pull curves with its 1883
expansion.

The grip used by the Sutter Street Railroad represented that
company's most important contribution to the industry. Hovey and T. Day,
the chief engineers of the line, designed the grip, the first to take
the cable from the side. Hallidie and Eppelsheimer's grip employed
horizontally moving jaws that the cable entered from below, while Hovey
and Day's used vertically moving jaws that took the cable from the side.
The Sutter Street Railroad grip abandoned the screw-within-a-screw
principle of Hallidie and Eppelsheimer, using instead a lever and
quadrant arrangement to transfer the gripman's motion to the jaws.
(Ondisplay at the Cable Car Museum, Clay Street Hill Railroad No.8
illustrates the screw-within-a-screw grip. (See How Do Cable Cars Work? for more details about
current and former grips.)

The Hovey and Day grip eliminated the need for turntables at the ends
of the line. The gripman changed his position, pulling back on the lever
westbound (outbound) and pushing it forward eastbound. This arrangement
was selected due to the preponderance of upward movement outbound.

By inconveniencing the gripman in this manner it proved unnecessary
to turn the dummies around at the termini, and the Sutter Street
Railroad, therefore, used simple switches to change its cars from one
track to the other. The lever and quadrant grip arrangement was used on
nearly every grip designed after 1877, whether it was a side or bottom
grip.

The firm consolidated all its cable driving operations into a single
powerhouse, at the southeast corner of Polk and Sutter, in 1883. As was
common with most of San Francisco's cable companies, the steam engines,
boilers, and winding machinery occupied the building's basement while
the upper floors were used for car storage and repairs and offices.

Casebolt and Hovey developed a new driving system for the Sutter
Street Railroad to avoid the patents held by Hallidie upon the system
used by the Clay Street Hill Railroad. It is unclear whether or not the
installation used in the 1883 powerhouse employed the same driving
system used in the original powerhouse. In the 1883 installation two
driving sheaves, also known as winders, drove each cable. The adhesion
necessary to avoid slipping was obtained by wrapping the cable around
the winders in a figure-eight pattern, also known as the "American"
drive system. (The figure-eight pattern is used today at Muni's
Washington-Mason power house.) The sheaves were mounted in line with
each other on the two main shafts. In 1883 the Sutter Street Company
used one set of 12-foot diameter winders and two sets measuring 10 feet
10 inches in diameter.

In 1883 the Sutter Street Railroad also used a different method for
maintaining tension on the cable from that developed by Hallidie. From
the winders the cable passed around a vertical tension sheave mounted on
a wheeled carriage running on rails. Weights, hanging suspended over a
pit and attached by a chain to each tension carriage, pulled the
carriages back along the rails as the cable's length varied, keeping it
taut.

The physical plant of the Sutter Street Railroad, designed to avoid
the patents held by Andrew S. Hallidie, made several valuable
contributions to cable traction technology. The most important of these
contributions, Hovey and Day's side grip, that differed radically from
the device used by the Clay Street Hill Railroad with its lever and
quadrant motion. This design has been used on nearly every grip
developed after this time. In 1883 the company introduced the pull curve
to San Francisco, freeing the cable car from the restriction of straight
line operations. The figure-eight drive system and moveable tension
carriages used in the 1883 powerhouse represented marked advances in
cable technology (both may have appeared in the powerhouses of other
firms before 1883). Sutter Street Railroad accomplishments were all
outside of the Southern Pacific's Market Street Railway group.

The Sutter Street Railroad was the first cable car company to operate
more than one cable car line. This showed the capability of the
technology to serve a wider area than previously thought. This, in turn
showed the potential of city wide operations in the future. The cable
car lines greatly extended the life of the Sutter Street Railway, which
would have otherwise remained a money-loser and thus would have been
swallowed up soon by a larger operator. Of the pre-cable San Francisco
transit operations, the Sutter Street company stayed independent
(1866-1901) the longest.

Like the Clay Street Hill Railroad, the Sutter Street Railroad proved
cable car technology despite its heavy initial capital costs can earn
significant profits for its investors. This fact provided a critical
basis for the expansion of the industry. In turn, the expansion of San
Francisco's cable car network during the last quarter of the nineteenth
century, opened vast areas of the city to development and changed San
Francisco's face forever.

Epilogue

Sutter Street was converted to electric streetcar operation during the post 1906 earthquake and
fire period. In 1913 the United Railroads purchased 65 state-of-the-art cars from the American Car Company. These
cars soon became identified with the Sutter Street lines; in fact they became the symbol of Sutter Street transit.
Thirty-one years after arriving in San Francisco car 219, looking a little worse for wartime wear, passes the former
cable train terminal of Sutter and Sansome, May 5, 1944. 219 is running on the number No. 2 Sutter & Clement line;
a line created by combining the route of the Sutter Street cable line with the Sutro Railroad’s Ocean Beach Cliff
House route. Walter Rice Collection, Wilbur Whittaker photograph.
Click on the image to see a larger version.

After the April 1906 Earthquake and Fire the United Railroads
electrified Sutter Street and combined it with the electrified, since
1905, Cliff line via outer California Street creating the what became
known in 1909 as the 1-Sutter & California. At this time, the former
Sutro Railway Clement Street electric line was cut back from Geary and
Presidio Avenue to California and Parker, becoming a shuttle or
"extension" that connected with Sutter & California cars. In 1909, this
line was extended via, California, Presidio Avenue and Sutter Street,
becoming the 2-Sutter & Clement. Also, in 1906 the Sutter & Jackson line
(later the No. 3) began Sutter Street service east of Fillmore. Direct
service via Market Street was operated to the Ferry (and later the East
Bay Terminal) except between 1908 and 1913, when a franchise dispute
between the City and the URR forced the resumption of horsecar service
from Sutter and Sansome to the Ferry.

After the earthquake and fire of April 1906, the United Railroads converted Sutter Street to
electric streetcar. The new trolley cars continued via Market Street from Sutter and Market directly to the
Ferry Building. However, starting in 1908 the City engaged in a franchise dispute with the United Railroads forcing
that company to honor the literal franchise terms for the outer Market Street tracks (Market Street east of Sutter
was four-tracked) -- namely, to run horsecars on this trackage. URR horsecar No. 45 has just turned off of Market
Street onto Sutter and shortly its passengers will board a Sutter Street electric car, 1913. Full electric car
service returned on June 3 of that year. Randolph Brant Collection. Click on the image to see a
larger version.

In 1935, a fourth streetcar line was added to the Sutter Street - the
No. 4 Sutter & Sacramento - which joined Sutter Street at Fillmore. All
Sutter Street streetcar service ended July 2, 1949. In late 1906 the
former Sutter Street Railway's crosstown line was electrified eventually
becoming the No. 19 Polk-Larkin and Ninth Street. This line was
converted by the Municipal Railway to
motor coach on September 30, 1945.

Early dash sign from United Railroads No. 1 -Sutter & California electric line. Val Lupiz Design
Click on the image to see a larger version.